Economic Buzz: UK Inflation Accelerates For First Time In 6 Months In February20-Mar-2019 (16:55)

UK consumer price inflation accelerated in February for the first time in six months, preliminary data from the Office for National Statistics showed on Wednesday. The consumer price index rose 1.9 percent year-on-year following a 1.8 percent increase in January. Core inflation slowed to 1.80 percent from 1.90 percent.

Germany's producer price inflation rose 2.6 percent year-on-year in February, same as in January, after slowing in the previous two months, preliminary figures from the Federal Statistical Office showed on Wednesday. Producer price inflation was last lower than the current rate in May 2018, when it was 2.5 percent. Among the main industrial groups, energy prices rose 7.5 percent after a 0.2 percent slump in January. Prices of durable consumer goods and those of capital goods climbed 1.6 percent each. Producer prices of intermediate goods were 1.1 percent higher, after a modest 0.1 percent fall at the start of the year. Prices of non-durable consumer goods grew 0.8 percent. Excluding energy, producer prices rose 1.3 percent year-on-year and edged up 0.1 percent from the previous month. On a month-on-month basis, producer prices decreased 0.1 percent after a 0.4 percent increase in January.

New Zealand seasonally adjusted current account deficit came in at NZ$2.5 billion in the fourth quarter of 2018, Statistics New Zealand said on Wednesday. The current account deficit for the year ended December 2018 widened to NZ$11.0 billion (3.7 percent of GDP) from the NZ$8.2 billion deficit for the December 2017 year (2.9 percent of GDP). New Zealand's net international liability position was NZ$167.3 billion (57.0 percent of GDP), up from the revised position of NZ$156.3 billion (53.6 percent of GDP) at 30 September 2018. The seasonally adjusted goods and services surplus narrowed to NZ$54 million (down NZ$94 million).

US factory orders inched up by 0.1 percent in January, matching the 0.1 percent uptick in December, the Commerce Department reported on Tuesday, with a drop in orders for non-durable goods partly offsetting an increase in orders for durable goods. The modest increase in factory orders came as durable goods orders rose by 0.3 percent in January after jumping by 1.3 percent in December. Orders for transportation equipment showed a substantial increase, surging up by 1.2 percent in January after soaring by 3.2 percent in the previous month.

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Economic Buzz: German ZEW Investor Confidence Spikes To Highest In A Year19-Mar-2019 (18:47)

Germany's investor confidence jumped sharply in March, reversing a steep fall in the previous month, to its highest level in a year, preliminary data from the ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research showed on Tuesday. The ZEW Indicator of Economic Sentiment for Germany rose to -3.6 from -13.4 in February. The current situation index of the survey fell to 11.1 from 15.

UK unemployment rate fell below 4% for the first time since 1975, according to official figures. The Office for National Statistics said the jobless rate was 3.9% in the three months to January, down from 4% at the end of 2018. The wages excluding bonuses rose by 3.4%, unchanged on the previous month. Unemployment fell by 35,000 to 1.34 million and the number of people in work increased by 222,000 - the fastest pace of hiring in more than three years. The proportion of people in paid work edged up from 75.3% to 76.1%- the highest employment rate on record.

House prices in Australia dropped 2.4% on quarter in the fourth quarter of 2018, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Tuesday - coming in at A$6.677 trillion. This followed 1.5% decline in the three months prior. On a yearly basis, house prices fell 5.1 following the 1.9% contraction in the previous three months.

Homebuilder confidence in the US held steady in the month of March, according to a report released by the National Association of Home Builders on Monday. The report said the NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index came in at 62 in March, unchanged from February.

Japan posted a merchandise trade surplus of 339.002 billion yen in February, the Ministry of Finance said on Monday, following the 1.415 trillion yen deficit in January. Exports were down 1.2 percent on year to 6.384 trillion yen, following the 8.4 percent slide in the previous month. Imports tumbled an annual 6.7 percent to 6.045 trillion yen, following the 0.6 percent drop a month earlier.

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Economic Buzz: New Zealand Service Sector Expands At Slower Pace In February 18-Mar-2019 (10:00)

New Zealand services sector continued to expand in February, albeit at a slower pace, the latest survey from BusinessNZ said on Monday with a Performance of Services Index score of 53.8. That's down from the downwardly revised 56.2 in January (originally 56.3) although it remains well above the boom-or-bust line of 50.

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Economic Buzz: Eurozone Inflation Edges Up In February 15-Mar-2019 (17:19)

Eurozone inflation rose in February, while the core price growth eased, latest figures from Eurostat confirmed on Friday. The harmonized inflation rose to 1.5% from January's 1.4%. However, the core inflation rate that excludes energy, food, alcohol and tobacco, eased to 1% in February from 1.1% in January. Energy price inflation accelerated to 3.6% in February, from 2.7% in January, marking the highest annual rate among the main components of inflation.

European car sales dropped for a sixth month in a row in February, despite recovery in some major markets like Germany, figures from the European Automobile Manufacturers Association, or ACEA, showed on Friday. New car registrations slipped 1% year-on-year following a 4.6% fall in January. Following months of decline, car sales grew 2.7% in Germany, 2.1% in France and 1.4% in UK from a year ago.

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Economic Buzz: BOJ Keeps Monetary Policy Steady 15-Mar-2019 (14:05)

The Bank of Japan (BOJ) kept its monetary policy steady on Friday. The policy board of the BoJ voted 7-2 to purchase government bonds so that the yield of 10-year JGBs will remain at around zero percent. The board maintained interest rate at -0.1% on current accounts that financial institutions maintain at the bank. The BoJ will conduct purchases of Japanese government bonds in a flexible manner so that the outstanding amount will increase at an annual pace of about JPY 80 trillion.

The BOJ said it will continue with Quantitative and Qualitative Monetary Easing with Yield Curve Control policy to attain the inflation goal of 2% and maintain that target in a stable manner. The bank reiterated that it will continue expanding the monetary base until the year-on-year rate of increase in the observed CPI exceeded 2% and stayed above the target in a stable manner.

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Economic Buzz: US New Home Sales Plummet by 6.9% In January 15-Mar-2019 (10:07)

The US Commerce Department said new home sales plummeted by 6.9% to an annual rate of 607,000 in January from a revised rate of 652,000 in December. The median sales price of new houses sold in January was $317,200, down 0.6 percent from $319,100 in December and down 3.8% from $329,600 a year ago.The report also said the estimate of new houses for sale at the end of January was 336,000, representing 6.6 months of supply at the current sales rate. Compared to the same month a year ago, the annual rate of new home sales in January was down by 4.1%.

China industrial production rose 5.3 percent year-on-year in the January to February period, official data showed on Thursday. The pace of growth was reportedly the weakest since 2002. In December, production grew 5.7 percent. Retail sales growth remained near 15-year lows in the two-month period, down 8.2 percent year-on-year.

The annual rate of wholesale price inflation, based on monthly Wholesale Price Index WPI, stood at 2.93% for the month of February, 2019 (over February, 2018) as compared to 2.76% for the previous month and 2.74% during the corresponding month of the previous year. Build up inflation rate in the financial year so far was 2.75% compared to a build up rate of 2.56% in the corresponding period of the previous year.

The index for primary articles group declined by 0.2% to 134.2 from 134.5 for the previous month. The index for fuel and power group rose by 1.7% to 101.0 from 99.3 for the previous month. The index for this manufactured product group rose by 0.2% to 118.1 from 117.9 for the previous month.

The rate of inflation based on WPI Food Index consisting of ‘Food Articles’ from Primary Articles group and ‘Food Product’ from Manufactured Products group increased from 1.84% in January, 2019 to 3.29% in February, 2019.

China's industrial output rose by 5.3% year on year in the first two months, narrowing from 5.7% growth in December 2018, the National Bureau of Statistics said Thursday. This data marked 17-year low for the measure. However, deducting the Spring Festival factor, China's industrial output expanded 6.1% year on year in the first two months. In other data releases today, growth in fixed-asset investment, recorded a rise of 6.1% in the first two months of this year. Retail sales also rose at a decent clip of 8.2% in January-February from a year earlier.

US Labor Department said its producer price index for final demand inched up by 0.1 percent in February after edging down by 0.1 percent in January. The uptick in producer prices came amid a notable rebound in energy prices, which surged up by 1.8 percent in February after plunging by 3.8 percent in January. On the other hand, the report said food prices fell by 0.3 percent in February, extending the 1.7 percent slump in the previous month. Excluding food and energy prices, core producer prices also ticked up by 0.1 percent in February after climbing by 0.3 percent in the previous month. Core prices were also expected to increase by 0.2 percent.

US durable goods orders climbed by 0.4 percent in January after spiking by an upwardly revised 1.3 percent in December, according to a report released by the Commerce Department on Wednesday. The unexpected increase in durable goods orders was largely due to a continued surge in orders for transportation equipment, which jumped by 1.2 percent in January after surging up by 3.1 percent in December.

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